Effects of early home language environment: Is accent a friend or a foe?

Abstract

The present research investigated the effects of exposure to non-English heritage languages versus exposure to accented English during early childhood on various performance outcomes later in life. Three groups of young adult participants who differed in their early home language environment were examined: i) those who were mostly exposed to their non-English heritage language from their parents during early childhood, ii) those who were mostly exposed to accented English from their parents during early childhood, and iii) native monolingual speakers of English whose parents are also native English speakers. Participants were tested on a range of linguistic and cognitive tasks across three studies. The results showed that people who were mostly exposed to accented English in the early home environment are more native-like in various aspects of English language performance than those who were mostly exposed to their non-English heritage language, including vocabulary, pronunciation, processing of certain types of speech stimuli, lexical retrieval, and verbal fluency. However, they displayed reduced proficiency levels in their heritage language, and were often not able to effectively communicate in it. Those who were mostly exposed to their non-English heritage language were better able to communicate in their heritage language, and also appear to show enhancements in cognitive aspects, particularly in executive function processes. Overall, it appears that people whose migrant parents spoke to them more in the majority language of a new country, even if spoken with accented pronunciations, are more native-like in aspects of language performance in the new country, compared to those whose parents spoke to them more in their heritage language. However, there is likely to be a trade-off, where they forego being able to communicate in their heritage language. These findings help to provide insight and inform migrant parents of the consequences of choosing to speak one language over the other with their children.